A/N:- This story was originally started by Phoenix feather94 and is based upon their title and ideas. It’s being continued by kind permission of the original author by myself magicmuggle01. I hope that I can do the story justice in the rewrite.

It had been a terribly long day; the once beautiful fairytale Castle lay in ruins all around Harry and as he stared vacantly into the distance the realism finally settled into his mind, as he noticed the ruins for the first time. He sunk to his knees, exhausted from his battle with Voldemort. Harry barely heard the sound of someone shouting his name; he lifted his head and numbly looked around him. In the distance at the other end of the Great Hall he could make out – through his cracked glasses – the blurry images of Ron and Hermione rushing to meet him. The next thing he knew he was being bowled over after Hermione threw herself on him and after a massive, tight hug she raised herself and then punched him on the arm.

‘Ow’ exclaimed Harry rubbing his arm where it had been punched ‘What was that for?’

‘For making us think you were dead’ rebuked Hermione.

Harry smiled at Hermione’s reaction, ‘Sorry about that, but it was important for things to work out that you thought that I was dead. I had to take Voldemort by surprise. Anyway, I would like to go somewhere quieter and get my thoughts together.’

With Ron’s help, Harry was pulled off the floor and together the three friends went up the stairs making their way to the Gryffindor common room. On the way they never met another soul, for the first time the trio noticed that a gloomy silence hung over the once noisy Castle. They soon reached the portrait of the fat lady and found that the door was wide open, the picture frame was empty. Not thinking as to the reason behind the fat ladies absence, they entered into the common room. The room was deserted and the quietest harry had ever heard it. He sat down on one of the two chairs that were still intact and pointed his phoenix feather wand at the fire place, too tired to even murmur the spell he just said it inside his head, the magic whizzing out of his wand, landing as fire in the hearth and the flames ignited instantly warming the common room. He took off his glasses, rubbing the dust off the lenses and, handing them to Hermione, heard her mutter a barely audible, ‘Oculus Reparo.’ He returned the glasses to his eyes and looked up to see Hermione leaning against Ron who had claimed the other chair. Hermione, noticing the look Harry gave them, cleared her throat to explain what had happened between her and Ron earlier.

Harry stopped her, ‘A little warning would have been nice but I should have guessed really.’ Hermione smiled, blushing as bright as a Cherry and moved from her place on the floor to a more comfortable seat on Ron’s lap, his long arms snaked around her waist in an odd sort of embrace. Harry took a deep breath,

‘I spoke to Dumbledore tonight –‘He was cut off by an impatient, and somewhat annoyed Ron, ‘We know, we heard him praising you, along with the rest of the headmasters Hogwarts ever had.’

‘I mean before that. After Voldemort killed me, I was taken into a sort of dream like world that seemed real, but wasn’t. He had told me that I had been the last Horcrux and Voldemort never knew about it. When he’d tried to kill me, he had accidently inserted a part of his soul into me and that was the reason why I was able to speak Parselmouth and delve into his thoughts and feel the anger whenever he was displeased. And also why he was able to get into my thoughts and make me see the time when I thought that he’d caught Sirius and used that to lure me to the Ministry. Then I found myself back in the woods, lying on the ground in the forest, but alive and well. I pretended to be dead and used that fact to help me get close to Voldemort, and the rest is – as they say – history.’ A loud crack suddenly sounded announcing Kreacher’s arrival in the common room.

‘Young master and his friends must eat something. You have not eaten for nearly two days.’

He was carrying a tray consisting of a plate of assorted sandwiches and a pitcher of Pumpkin juice along with Golden goblets and set them down on the table in front of Harry. A loud rumble came from Ron’s stomach as he reached past Hermione to grab a sandwich.

Harry looked down at his hands, fumbling as he spoke, he stood up and motioned to the boys’ dormitories, ‘I’m ... you know going up to have a sleep’ his feet felt heavy as he walked and seemed to trail behind him as he climbed the stairs to the room he shared with Ron, Dean and Seamus. At the dorm door he removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes, and when he looked towards his bed he saw a blurry figure lying on it. He replaced his glasses and saw someone with bright Red hair who was curled up, asleep on his bed. He tentatively approached his four-poster and for a few moments looked down at the tear stained face of the Red headed girl that he loved more than anything in the world. Gently he sat on the edge of the bed next to Ginny Weasley, and gently wiping away the tears that were stuck, frozen almost to her face, he kissed her on the cheek. Ginny stirred and opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was the face of Harry looking into her eyes. Ginny was up like a shot and wrapped her arms around his neck and crying and moaning out Harry’s name.

‘I thought you were dead’ she said ‘When I saw you in Hagrids arms looking lifeless I thought my world had come apart. I just ran and came up to your dorm and lay on your bed. I must have cried myself to sleep. Anyway, what happened? How did you end up here, alive?

Harry once again launched into the explanation that he’d given earlier. Ginny sat cuddled into Harry’s arms listening to all that Harry had to say. When he had finished Ginny just cuddled further into Harry’s arms and chest and tears had begun to flow down her face once more saying in a small voice ‘Harry, Harry, Harry.’ Soon she had once more fallen asleep and Harry gently lowered her head back onto the pillow and carefully lay down beside her, he lay his head on the pillow next to her and fell asleep, his fingers absentmindedly playing with her hair.

When Harry woke up next morning, he found that his glasses had been removed and folded then placed on his bedside cabinet. Picking them up and placing them on his nose he scanned the room and found a certain red haired girl laying next to him, and in a flash he remembered all that had transpired the night before, the bed covers had been pulled up to cover him and all his injuries had been healed. He looked once more towards the girl that he loved and gently stroked her face once more. Ginny woke and stretched her arms, upon seeing Harry’s face she smiled and said in a sleepy voice,

‘So it wasn’t a dream then? You’re really here?

‘Yes I’m really here’ came back the reply. Harry started to shuffle about and became very fidgety.

‘Why Harry, what are you so fidgety about? You’re like a cat on a hot tin roof. You can’t seem to stay still.’

‘Well I know that after everything that happened, and after the way I dumped you, I really don’t have any right to ask you this, but here goes. Ginny Molly Weasley, I would like you to do me the honour of once again continuing to be my girlfriend. I would understand if you decide to……..’ But he was cut off as what seemed like a whirlwind suddenly landed in his arms and a set of lips met his.

‘Harry James Potter, if you try to get rid of me again, I’ll Bat Bogey hex you into the middle of next week.’ And she kissed him once more to seal the bargain.

Hand in hand the two of them walked back down the stairs to the Gryffindor common room. There were cold spent ashes in the fireplace, making the surroundings look even more unfriendly. The morning air that was blowing in from the broken windows sent a cold shiver through Ginny, Harry instinctively put

his arms around her shoulder’s pulling her close to him.

A series of loud snorts startled the two of them, looking around they found that they came from one of the chairs in front of the fire place; Ron was snoring so loud you could almost see the windows shake, and Hermione was sound asleep next to him, her head on Ron’s shoulder. Though how she managed to sleep with all that noise from Ron was anyone’s guess. Harry looked down at his two sleeping friends, he let out a shuddered as he thought of what could have been, what he could have lost. The scenes from the battle which lingered in the back of his mind started to play themselves out again in his memories. Ron and Hermione battling through Death Eaters, trying to get to the Chamber of Secrets. Harry closed out that particular thought and let out another shudder. He didn’t want to think about it anymore. He clung tighter to Ginny without thinking about it.

Ginny, sensed that something was bothering Harry and squeezed his hand pulling him back into reality. She looked up into his emerald green eyes, concern written all over her expression. He considered telling her what was really bothering him but brushed it off when she dropped her gaze and walked over to the portrait hole. With a last loud snore from Ron, Harry followed her, the fat lady grinning broadly and nodding her head towards Harry as they exited the common room.

The two of them made their way down the stairs, hand in hand, making their way to the Great Hall. Ginny stopped at the entrance and stood at the door of the Great Hall, in her eyes she saw that it was filled with blood and the belongings of the dead. It didn’t feel as comfortable and cosy as it used to be, All the bodies had been removed although Harry was not sure where to. Ginny’s eyes started to water as she spotted her brother Fred’s cloak and wand, both bloodstained and the wand snapped cleanly in two lying on one of the long tables. Harry placed his hand in his pocket, finding his wand praying that he hadn’t just dreamt of fixing it. The wood met flesh and Harry withdrew his wand, pointing it at the doors of the great hall, closing them with not even so much as a whisper. The rest of the occupants startled by the noise, jumped up with wands drawn pointed at the door.

Harry noticing how distressed Ginny was, pulled her by the hand away from the Great Hall and down into the kitchens. At the entrance Harry reached up to tickle the pear, a door handle appeared and he pulled the door open to reveal akitchen that looked like a bomb had hit it. There were bits of rubble all over the place. But somehow the House Elves had still managed to work; they were getting a meal ready for the surviving defenders, but at that moment Kreacher and Winky came forward holding breakfast trays which contained bacon, eggs and goblets of pumpkin juice, one for both Ginny and Harry. The gesture reminded Harry of the small house elf he had buried at Shell Cottage, although Dobby would have brought the trays up to harry in the Gryffindor tower before he even woke up. Harry took the trays from the house elves and, with Hermione in mind, thanked them sincerely before exiting back into the entrance hall, Ginny trailing behind him.

Harry led Ginny past the marble staircase and out into the grounds. It was foggy and cold, giving the castle an eerie forgotten look. They arrived at a clearing away from the reminders of the battle, a couple of hundred yards away from the whomping willow and Harry set the trays down on a branch that had fallen off the vicious tree and it twitched ever so slightly before becoming still once more.

Ginny shuddered from the cold and it was only now that harry realised she hadn’t brought a jumper. He pulled off his dark green coat and draped it over her shoulders. ‘You know, Harry,’ Ginny stated staring into his eyes; she paused sipping her pumpkin juice, ‘Green really isn’t my colour….’ Harry swooped down and gently kissed her on the forehead before she could even finish the sentence.

‘Gin, to me you look beautiful no matter what colour your coat is.’ Ginny nuzzled Harry’s neck with her head and their breakfast was soon forgotten.

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A/N: - This is a rewrite of an original story started by a fellow author.